Selected Poems
Bronzeville by Night (1949)
Jazz skins saunter and sketch the four-corner scene.
Midnight blue is turned down for morning glory purple.
Pershing Avenue full of colorful people out to play scarlet.
Boogie-woogie characters refuse to sit on stoops all night.
Exhaustion brews an ice cold Blatz beer buzz into ankle benders.
Trumpet sighs push and pull Plymouths pass parked Hudsons.
Dime store dance in rumble seats of old De Sotos, smog the urban canyon.
Artificial neon electric light is what's buzzin cuzzin! .
Hi-dee hi-dee ho, hot-diggity dog, it's Saturday night.
Gentleman prefer ducky shin kickers cause
who cuts rug with ugly dead hoofers, right?
Piano love notes sing be-bop cross busy streets.
Plucky bass chicken bones a trombone wails for wild cats.
Dolly dizzy guys burn for khaki crazy gals.
Gin fizz sizzles on the drum, brush over and over.
There ain't no party like a Chi town party.
Midnight blue is turned down for morning glory purple.
Pershing Avenue full of colorful people out to play scarlet.
Boogie-woogie characters refuse to sit on stoops all night.
Exhaustion brews an ice cold Blatz beer buzz into ankle benders.
Trumpet sighs push and pull Plymouths pass parked Hudsons.
Dime store dance in rumble seats of old De Sotos, smog the urban canyon.
Artificial neon electric light is what's buzzin cuzzin! .
Hi-dee hi-dee ho, hot-diggity dog, it's Saturday night.
Gentleman prefer ducky shin kickers cause
who cuts rug with ugly dead hoofers, right?
Piano love notes sing be-bop cross busy streets.
Plucky bass chicken bones a trombone wails for wild cats.
Dolly dizzy guys burn for khaki crazy gals.
Gin fizz sizzles on the drum, brush over and over.
There ain't no party like a Chi town party.
